Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi

New Delhi, Dec 15: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday filed a chargesheet naming seven accused in connection with the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, which claimed the lives of 26 people, most of them tourists. The chargesheet includes the banned terror outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and The Resistance Front (TRF), along with a Pakistani handler, detailing Pakistan’s role and conspiracy behind the attack.

According to the NIA, the 1,597-page chargesheet was filed before the special NIA court in Jammu and lays out the roles of the accused, the larger terror conspiracy, and the evidence collected during the probe. The agency has charged LeT and its offshoot TRF as legal entities for their involvement in planning, facilitating and executing the attack.

The chargesheet names Pakistani handler Sajid Jatt as one of the accused. It also includes three Pakistani terrorists who were killed by the Indian Army during Operation Mahadev at Dachigam in Srinagar on July 29, nearly three months after the Pahalgam attack. These terrorists have been identified as Faisal Jatt alias Suleman Shah, Habeeb Tahir alias Jibran and Hamza Afghani.

The NIA has also invoked stringent penal provisions against the accused for waging war against India.

In addition, two local accused, Parvaiz Ahmad and Bashir Ahmad Jothar, who were arrested by the NIA on June 22 for harbouring terrorists, have also been chargesheeted. During interrogation, the two men disclosed the identities of the three armed terrorists involved in the attack and confirmed that they were Pakistani nationals linked to the proscribed LeT terror outfit.

The agency said the investigation has exposed a clear cross-border terror conspiracy orchestrated from Pakistan to target civilians and destabilise peace in Jammu and Kashmir.